Leaving Callum with Tom, she couldn’t shift the sense as she walked down Royal College Street that she was not alone. Putting it down to the anomalous feeling of going out for a grown-up lunch without the baby after so long, she refused to turn around. The moment she saw Madeleine at their usual table in the window, her red lips wrestling with a piece of bread, any concerns she had melted away.

‘Look at you!’ Madeleine beamed up at her, taking a moment to inspect Gabriela’s features before kissing her warmly on both cheeks. ‘I’ve missed this face.’

She smiled. ‘Bloody hell, don’t look too closely … I’ve slept about three minutes this week. Anyway, that is almost literally the most boring sentence I have ever uttered – sorry. Please can we get a drink before I start talking about hand, foot and mouth disease?’

Madeleine grimaced and Gabriela gave her a look that told her not to ask, though part of her wished she would.

‘That’s the attitude, and I’m one step ahead …’ Madeleine passed her a glass of white wine from behind the menu propped on the table between them, and poured another for herself.

‘The children, oh my God, how are they?’

‘Well, Sadie is two and very sweet, and Callum is exhausting and gorgeous and has destroyed what was left of my tits, and that is the last word I’m going to say on the subject because I actually can’t be trusted not to turn into a tedious wretch if I start chatting about my kids … Cheers.’ she breathed in as she lifted her glass. ‘God, I’ve missed you.’

Madeleine shrugged. ‘You’re only human … So you’re looking forward to going back to work?’

Gabriela exhaled. ‘I suppose so. I mean yes, desperately, just to get out of the house, to be doing something with my brain … But the office is actually intolerable without you. Emsworth, he’s—’ She took a gulp of her drink before leaning back, making a groaning noise. ‘I just hate him.’

‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ Madeleine said.

Gabrielle held her eye for a moment. ‘OK then,’ she said, a rush of excitement taking hold as she reached down into her bag and pulled out the envelope she had been carrying around for so long, as if challenging herself to say something, hardly believing she had finally found the nerve.